


Roses & Sunflowers

by eternalsession



Category: RWBY
Genre: (a lot of ppl dont they're hackneyed to hell and back, F/M, I really do, Soulmate AU, but i lov them, cause who doesnt like soulmate aus, i love rnjr with all of my heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-15
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2019-01-17 15:31:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12368700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eternalsession/pseuds/eternalsession
Summary: “I’m really not all that special.”Ren smiled. “I think you might be.”Jaune sighed, but a smile formed on his face. “That isn’t the kind of reassurance I want to hear.”





	Roses & Sunflowers

Ruby Rose was a woman who could only see in shades of blue. Well, to say she could only see in shades of blue would invite misunderstanding; she could see anything blue that was blue to the rest of the world. Everything that wasn’t blue was greyscale to her—not that she particularly minded. Ruby had always played the hand given to her, and was a general optimist. She didn’t really get to know her mother very well before she had passed on due to illness, and her father, determined to raise his kids right, did his best to teach them optimism through example. Her uncle Qrow had taught her an awful lot about street smarts, and had a natural, outgoing personality, despite all her shyness. In the grand scheme of things, being only able to see greyscale and blue for some odd reason, was really no big deal. She’d learned what it was caused by as a kid, thanks to her uncle.

“It means you have a soulmate, kiddo,” he told her, bending down and ruffling her hair. She was about seven at the time if she had to warrant a guess. “Not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing.”

The young Ruby tilted her head. “What’s a soulmate?”

Qrow scratched his head for a moment, looking for the words. “It’s a person who loves you very dearly, and without exception. Kinda like Papa.”

Ruby beamed, excited. “When do I get to meet them?”

Qrow’s face formed into a frown. “Sorry to tell you, but I don’t know. But I promise you’ll meet them some day.”

Ruby seemed dejected for a moment, but quickly shook it off. “Then I’ll look for them!” Qrow laughed.

“Alright. I’ll help you look, then. Let me know anytime you want to go searching.”

“Let’s go now!! Oh, but, how will I know it’s them?” Ruby asked, climbing onto Qrow’s back.

“You’ll definitely know it’s them the moment you lock eyes. Trust me.”

                And that was that. He really hadn’t given her any confirmation on what would happen once she met her soulmate, whatever that was. It sure sounded nice in theory but wouldn’t the execution be too flawed? And what about those who don’t believe in love, or are aromantic, or, or, or—and so on.

“Not everyone has a soulmate. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it was pretty strange to have one. I know I don’t have one. Oddly enough, your mother had the same issue. Maybe it runs in the family?”

                Despite everything, he was surprisingly reliable. Though, he was her favorite uncle, and she always loved him, she had a hard time understanding how he had known so much. Sure, he was older than he looked, and she knew he had worked as a spy (he said nothing more on the matter, simply stating his profession), but it seemed like he always knew all the answers. It was… unsettling. Yang agreed, and so did her father, though they didn’t pay it enough heed to warrant anything more than mild discomfort.

And so, for eighteen years, Ruby lived with being mostly colorblind. She wasn’t the type to let herself get down about many things, and not being able to see colors was, in no way, inhibiting to her goal. She wanted to help people, and so she set out to college with the intention of becoming a police officer, and later in life, a teacher. For eleven years, she’d dreamed of meeting her soulmate, with all kinds of beginnings and endings, and with the influx of new people she’d meet in college (if her father’s and sister’s stories were to be believed), she hoped she would meet them there. It had been nothing short of a crushing disappointment when, after the first month, she didn’t meet anyone. She’d made good friends with Yang’s friends, Weiss and Blake, and they’d been on dozens of mall dates and whatnot (she was glad her soulmate wasn’t a clerk at Journey’s, at least) but still no dice.

After a while, she met a group of three who hung out together frequently, and she decided to join them for lunch on a whim when Yang wasn’t around. They were Lie Ren (affectionately referred to as Ren), Pyrrha, and Nora, the last of which she shared more than a few classes with. They were… a lot more fun to hang out with than expected, Ruby thought. It was a different experience than hanging with her own friends, but not one that was unpleasant.

She’d gleaned a lot from listening in on their conversations. Pyrrha, a tall, red haired woman, had been immaculate in just about everything she participated in; she played herself down, but Ren and Nora stressed that she was “full of it,” in Nora’s words. She was introduced to their small friend group by a young man named Jaune who worked at a florist’s. She was quite well known, and the four of them actually attended high school together. She was the star and captain of their volleyball team, and Nora was her co-captain. She met Jaune during their homecoming dance. She didn’t have a partner, and he didn’t recognize her with her hair down, so he asked her for a dance. As she turned around, he realized exactly who he was asking to dance, but more than that, the utter shock on his face as she agreed to dancing with him was something that elicited hysteric laughter even four years later. As it turns out, Jaune and Pyrrha dated for a long while, but ultimately decided to break up on good terms. Eventually Pyrrha met Weiss, and by now they had been… “talking,” in the words of one short, ginger-haired woman.

Ren was also inducted to the friend group by Jaune—Ruby commented on him having good people skills, and the three shared a laugh. Nora said he had the Devil’s own luck (she seemed to comment a lot, Ruby noted), as he was able to stumble his way through relationships and find exactly the right people to associate with. Ren rebutted, saying that he had also tried to make friends with people who weren’t healthy for him (he mentioned one Cardin Winchester), and he’d been on various people’s bad sides because they didn’t think he was good enough for Pyrrha. Nora pointed out that he’d actually agreed on most fronts, but somehow his character had cool lines like “It doesn’t matter if you think I’m good enough, all that matters is that she’s happy.” Pyrrha covered her face, and the three other tablemates shared a laugh.

Ren and Jaune were both in the intermediate level courses, named “Honors” classes, which were only slightly harder or more advanced than normal classes. Pyrrha and Weiss-level students were placed in the hardest classes, named “AP” classes, short for Advanced Placement. Nora took normal classes, but claimed she was smart enough for the Honors courses, just tended to slack off. Ren agreed to that, but warned her about hubris. Continuing, he stated that Jaune had suddenly seated himself next to him and introduced himself one day. A warm smile snaked across his lips as he remembered. He called the approach simple, but charming. Since then, they’d been the best of friends. Ren was a quite down-to-earth fellow, and he admitted to liking having Nora around because he’d never a dull moment around her. For all of her excitement, she wasn’t out of this plane of existence, and it was helpful for him to have someone so exciting in his daily life. Despite that, he often found his hands full with her, and Jaune had some incredible sixth sense about what he needed, when he needed it, and how much of it he needed (Pyrrha commented that she hadn’t had another boyfriend, or girlfriend for that matter, but he was the absolute best for the same reason). Ren was not a man who was slow on the uptake, however, and quickly found a way to reciprocate the gesture, and they shared a strange intimacy.

Nora, however, was not privy to any of the same intimacy the other two shared with the blonde. They were good friends, however, but she couldn’t share the bond of a lover and… “a lover in a past life,” is how she described his relationship with Ren. Ruby quite enjoyed her descriptions of their group. Still though, during group sleepovers and the like at Jaune’s house, she had been made well aware of the kind of person Jaune was. They didn’t often spend time alone, but when they did it was always pleasant. She called him “the type of guy who doesn’t think of himself until he’s made sure others are okay,” and her two friends nodded. She’d taken him on dates before to look for gifts for Ren and Pyrrha, and one time ended up spending the whole day goofing off. In that aspect, while he had an air of responsibility, he did tend to get swept up in the moment if he was having fun. He wasn’t exactly impulsive, and certainly liked to have a clear plan before doing something, but he thought best on his feet, in the moment. Without a general idea, however, he was quite easily caught up in Nora’s schemes.

She was glad to have learned about them, honestly. Her first month of college was a huge disappointment, and those were the first friends she’d made without Yang’s help. When she asked about Jaune’s place of work, Ren told her it was a local shop, between the seashore and the college. It had a great view, and the flowers were beautiful, he assured, though Ruby was sure it was a lot less pretty in greyscale. The sea was always stunning to her, though, so she was looking forward to it. Nora said, off-hand, something about not understanding why he worked there. Ruby was curious about what she meant, and when Nora flatly replied that he was colorblind, Ruby blinked a couple of times.

“I am too, actually. Odd question, but, can he see any colors?”

“If he can, he hasn’t told me about it, and we dated for four years,” Pyrrha said, confused. “Why?”

“Oh, nothing. Just wondering.”

And, immediately down the drain. To be expected, sure, but she sure didn’t like having non-existent hopes crushed into dust. Still, she was sort of excited to meet him anyway. She didn’t let the disappointment get to her, and pressed on, following Ren and Nora to the florist’s where he worked. The two left after briefly saying hi to their friend, off to do who-knows-what—probably adult, couple business, which she didn’t care more to think about. As she entered the shop, the sounds of quiet, relaxing, slow jazz and piano music filled her ears, and she felt relaxed. To her right was a counter with a small register, and a man was sitting in a chair, evidently reading something. He had on a pair of spectacles, and didn’t look up to greet the customer; it was likely he didn’t notice her come in behind Ren and Nora. Hopefully that was the case, and he wasn’t some rude clerk. She supposed he was simply relaxing, and he certainly looked that way. She heard him chuckle quietly, a couple of times, and found herself enjoying the sound.

She hadn’t been expecting to see the beauty of the flowers when she walked inside the shop, and as she expected, the flowers’ main attraction was their vibrancy. For someone like her, the meaning was lost, though she could say she appreciated the attention to detail. She sighed wistfully, and almost heard the man jump. She knew who he was; she’d just spent at least an hour listening to stories about him but couldn’t work up the courage to say hi. He removed his spectacles, which she took to mean at this point that they were for reading (further inspection showed that they were for blocking blue light, she recognized the brand), then gave a typical shop attendant smile.

She wasn’t expecting anything at all from this shop, a colorblind girl in a flower shop best known for its vibrant colors was a joke. What would she see here? She wasn’t fond of flowers, among many other things. She didn’t care for the sunset, and she didn’t care for moonlit nights. Even though great examples such as Mozart existed, the idea of a colorblind man known for keeping his flowers vibrant was baffling and hilarious to her. And, sure, she didn’t have to be able to see color to appreciate the beauty of such flowers. They smelled delightful, and the way the petals bloomed was marvelous, but she wouldn’t be taken back by it. It defied all logic. She almost wanted to laugh. She hadn’t been much of a cynic, but she supposed that her uncle had rubbed off on her, just a bit. Perhaps it was the disappointment from earlier that caused these intrusive thoughts to invade her mind, or maybe something else, but…

She wasn’t expecting anything, so when her eyes met with his as he slowly opened them, and her world filled with color, she was so genuinely surprised to find herself amidst a sea of colors. She was able to understand the world around her, the reason why everyone was so glad to see the sunset, the moonlit nights, the way that the colors of a person’s surroundings shone in the mirror of their eyes, for the first time in… her whole life. Why people had looked forward to the sunset, or pretty dresses, or the way a person’s hair or skin glowed when the sun or the moon’s light reflected on them… and when she turned her eyes upward again, after looking around the shop, she met his eyes again. He was absolutely dazzling.

He wore a long apron, with two pockets around the waist area, in the front, over a long-sleeve white shirt and slightly faded jeans. The apron was vertically striped, alternating between pastel blue, pink, and yellow. In the middle of the chest was a symbol of two arcs in yellow. In one of the pockets was a glasses case and a phone, and in the other was what she assumed to be the standard tools a florist would need. His face displayed more shock than hers, which she took to mean that he hadn’t been informed of the prospect of a soulmate, which wasn’t a surprise. She wasn’t entirely sure how her uncle knew that meant she had a soulmate. Thinking quickly, Ruby pulled out her smart phone.

“Let’s take a picture together!” she exclaimed, putting on a façade of absolute excitement; admittedly, it came easily, and she did find herself quite excited, but her heart was racing and her mind was working hard. Jaune obliged, and managed a smile for the camera. He no doubt learned how to smile on command due to his work here, and after looking at the picture, she came to realize—

“Of course. My eyes are grey, so no wonder…” she sighed.

“They’re silver. They look so much different than grey, and I would know. It’s like a color of its own. I’ve been looking at grey eyes my whole life.”

She whipped around, drawn out of her own world by the blonde standing behind her. He extended a hand. “I’m Jaune. Welcome to Sunflowyr. Disclaimer: we only sell sunflowers during the summer. I didn’t see you come in, sorry for my rudeness.”

She took it graciously. “Oh, no problem! Yang loves those. I should get some for her at a point. I can’t stick around for long, but, let me see your phone,” she said, not waiting for his answer and snatching it out of his pocket. It was password protected, however, and he took it back from her, then unlocked it and paged to the phone app. He handed back her phone, and she felt eyes on her. After dialing her number and hitting the call button, then verifying that it went through to the right number, she handed the phone back. “I’ll text you sometime tonight.”

“Uh, sure. I’m not averse to the idea, but I’m not exactly following what’s going on here. Why can I suddenly see colors, and why are you so zealous about me? I’ve never met you.”

She touched a finger to his nose and mouthed “boop,” something she had imitated from a friend he was well acquainted with (though she didn’t know the meaning behind it). “’Cause you’re my soulmate!”

And in a flash of red, the small girl was gone.

Ren walked through the door a few moments later, and he was shaken out of his daze by the sound of the bell ringing. He gave an apologetic look, and Jaune returned a look of resignation.

“I’m really not all that special.”

Ren smiled. “I think you might be.”

Jaune sighed, but a smile formed on his face. “That isn’t the kind of reassurance I want to hear.”

**Author's Note:**

> originally this was supposed to be longer and maybe one day i'll publish the second part of it but I wrote this like... two-three months ago? i liked the concept and i wanted to wait to post it but i wanted to post something for volume 5's release so... here it is! hope you all enjoyed it, and if not, let me know what you didn't like, so i can improve in the future. :)


End file.
